Want to Snack Less? Skip the Dip

Trying to shed a few calories from your daily intake? Drop the dip, say researchers.

After studying the snacking habits of 46 volunteers, a research team from Penn State University noticed that participants ate roughly the same amount of chips irrespective of whether dips were present.

Given that, combined, the chip and dip indulgence yielded a 77% higher calorific intake, the researchers say resisting the temptation of dipping sauces could be one way of reducing the calorie cost of daily snacking.

The results were published in Food Quality and Preference.

Hacking snacking

Snacks make up about a quarter of the daily calories of the average American.

To better understand this kind of munching, the Penn State team invited 46 participants (74% of whom were female) to come to their lab twice over 2 weeks to eat 70 grams of chips at their leisure. During one visit, the tortilla chips were served with ranch dipping sauce; during the other session, the chips were served without a condiment.

Both sessions were video recorded so participants’ bites could be counted and timed. The researchers used this information to calculate measures of “eating microstructure,” including eating rate and bite size.

After studying these data, the researchers found that the level of chip consumption barely differed between the two sessions.

Indeed, instead of compensating for the available dip by eating fewer chips, the volunteers tended to chew through the same amount of chips with added dip. On average, this extra consumption yielded a 77% greater intake of calories.

“The most striking finding of our study is that people didn't eat fewer chips when dip was available – they ate the same amount of chips, plus the dip,” said John Hayes, a professor of food science and director at Penn State and co-author of the research. “This lack of compensation means that adding dip to chips can substantially increase overall energy intake without people realizing it.”

On average, participants consumed 345 calories of chips and dip during the “dip session” and 195 calories when chips were served alone.

“The greater intake resulting from dip inclusion may have been facilitated by a larger total snack bite size, as opposed to faster chip eating rate,” said Madeline Harper, a research assistant who led the study and who recently graduated from Penn State with a master’s degree in food science.

American snack-o

Despite snacking making up a major portion of energy in the typical American diet, it remains an understudied behavior, according to John Hayes. Understanding it better, he says, is crucial to help address issues of overeating and obesity.

“This research opens up new avenues for exploring how the physical properties of foods can influence our eating behaviors and ultimately, our energy intake,” he said. “If we can slow people down, we can influence energy consumption without giving up the pleasure from food.”

The study was partly funded by the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Reference: Harper MM, Cunningham PM, Hayes JE. Serving a dip with a salty snack promotes energy intake. Food Qual Prefer.. 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105257

This article is a rework of a press release issued by Penn State University. Material has been edited for length and content.